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Cecil B. de Mille and Yul Brynner on the set of The ten commandments (1955)

French postcard in the Entr'acte series by Éditions Asphodèle. Mâcon, no. 004/2. Photo: Collection B. Courtel / D.R. Cecil B. DeMille and Yul Brynner on the set of The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1955). Caption: Yul Brynner, film actor and photo enthusiast, takes a break to photograph director Cecil B. DeMille.

 

Between 1914 and 1958, Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959) made 70 silent and sound films. He is a founding father of American cinema and the most commercially successful producer-director in film history. DeMille is synonymous with religious epics: The Ten Commandments (1923 and 1956), The King of Kings (1927), and Samson and Delilah (1949). He blended spectacle, sex, and spellbinding narrative to convey a message of faith. His silent films also included social dramas, comedies, and Westerns. DeMille created the image of the omnipotent director, megaphone in hand, wearing boots and a visored cap. DeMille created numerous stars: Wallace Reid, Gloria Swanson, William Boyd, Claudette Colbert, Jean Arthur, and Charlton Heston.

 

Yul Brynner (Юлий Борисович Бринер, 1920–1985) was a Russian-born United States-based film and stage actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the King Mongkut of Siam in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I. He played the role 4,625 times on stage and won two Tony Awards. For the film version, The King and I (Walter Lang, 1956), he also won the Academy Award. He quickly gained superstar status with his roles as Rameses II in the blockbuster The Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille, 1956) and General Bounine in the historical drama Anastasia (Anatole Litvak, 1956) opposite Ingrid Bergman, and made the 'Top 10 Stars of the Year' list in both 1957 and 1958. Later roles include Chris Adams in the Western The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges, 1960) and a gunslinger robot in the Science fiction Western-thriller Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973).

 

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Uploaded on October 20, 2021